Preparation for The Oregonian's Condit dam removal video began the day before the event took place. Pacificorp had made various materials available to the media through an FTP site, and in going through it I noticed that there were many archival photographs dating back to the dam's construction. We realized that we could include these as a recap of the dam's history, and start building the video ahead of time. Therefore we'd be able to finish it as quickly as possible after the actual breaching occurred on Wednesday.

Photographer Doug Beghtel and reporter Scott Learn recorded voice-over audio, while I sifted through Pacificorp's archival photos and other materials. I also had access to footage Doug had shot of the dam the week before, while workers were preparing it for the breach. Once the VO was ready, I put together a rough assembly of the video with gaps where I anticipated footage from the breach day would fit.

On Wednesday, with Doug Beghtel again out at the dam to capture what he could in spite of fairly stringent restrictions, back at the office we attempted to record Pacificorp's webcast of the breach. Unfortunately our recording lagged and missed the moment of the explosion. Thankfully, Pacificorp provided raw footage to their FTP site late in the day, and I was able to replace our flawed recording with much higher-quality content.

All in all, the preparation paid off and we were able to get the finished video up on the site within a few hours after the breach.